Your Views: UW-Rock event opens eyes to violence against women

I left UW-Rock County on Sunday feeling like I’d been run over by a Mack truck. The “Vagina Monologues” was so hard-hitting, it left me breathless. This V-Day, 2014, event was performed through stories, letters, and vignettes in an effort to stop violence against women and girls. It was written by Eve Ensler, and the one-day event was presented at the Kirk Denmark Theatre, Wells Cultural Center.

In skit-like presentations, with titles such as: “For My Sisters,” “Not so Happy Fact,” “Because He Liked to Look at It,” and “I Was There in the Room,” female performers approached the podium. They spoke of matters important to women worldwide; some in the form of horrific true stories of violence inflicted on females, some pieces laced with humor.

This V-Day event serves as a means to raise awareness and, yes, money! Money raised is used to stop the violence some women must endure daily, to educate millions of men and women, to create safe houses and shelters for women and children in peril, and to fund anti-violence campaigns. It stipulates that rape, incest and genital mutilations must stop through its programs. It is 1 billion strong.